Russian poetry as bestiary (in K. N. Batyushkov's letters)

The article continues a series of the author's publications on the bestiary text in the Russian poetry. The investigator's interests mainly include animals on the RES level, i.e. study of bestiary metaphors in the Russian poets' texts. Descriptions of individual authors' bestiaries allow scholars to collect rich textual material necessary for further typological and comparative analysis. The present article concerns K.N. Batyushkov's letters in which Russian poetry of the first third of the 19 th century is represented as a peculiar rhetorical beast show. It is found out that using bestiary comparisons in literary disputes, Batyushkov continues the tradition of Russian poetry of the 17 th century and forestalls “Arzamas” bestiary phraseology. A conclusion is drawn that Batyushkov's picture of the literary life of the epoch reflected in the animals' mirror significantly broadens our understanding of this poet and the Russian poetry of the first third of the 19 th century as a whole.